IBM Eserver x346 serverraid question

[Private Citizen]

an IBM eserver x346 acting as a mission critical server has just ran out of disk space. Items are periodically deleted to free up some breathing room but logs quickly fill up again.

This server has a IBM ServerRAID 7k controller in a RAID5 array. There are two more plug in slots to add additional scsi drives if needed.

My question: Can 1 more new scsi drive be plugged in without loosing the data on the server? Can I just install the new disk, have ServerRAID card add it to the array and then I can go into windows and format and partition the new space? Is this possible.

This server is live and very important to our organization. The software used on the machine wants all data to be local, so creating an additonal server to hold the data is out of the question.

Any experience with an IBM ServerRAID 7k controller?

 

[MixManSC]

While you can plug more drives in you will only be able to create a new volume with them. That controller will not allow you to expand an existing raid volume on the fly. With zero downtime the only option I can think of would be to plug 2 drives into the last remaining slots, use serveraid manager in windows (install it if its not already) to create a new mirrored (only option with 2 drives and still have fault tolerance) volume. Then create a folder on the existing raid array and in windows disk management mount the new mirrored volume to the folder created on the existing array. The OS and apps will think it's the same drive but you will have to add new stuff to the new folder. There might be other options but thats all I can think of quickly without having any reboots needed.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Notify the users, bring it down, backup, add drives, recreate raid, restore. If you cannot bring this machine down, even for three hours it'll take to do this, ask yourself (and your boss, and the guy who buys hardware!) why you're on a single machine. If that doesn't get their attention, simulate a failure and *then* go to them. If it's mission critical, then you need two, as simple as that.

 

[Private Citizen]

While you can plug more drives in you will only be able to create a new volume with them. That controller will not allow you to expand an existing raid volume on the fly. With zero downtime the only option I can think of would be to plug 2 drives into the last remaining slots, use serveraid manager in windows (install it if its not already) to create a new mirrored (only option with 2 drives and still have fault tolerance) volume. Then create a folder on the existing raid array and in windows disk management mount the new mirrored volume to the folder created on the existing array. The OS and apps will think it's the same drive but you will have to add new stuff to the new folder. There might be other options but thats all I can think of quickly without having any reboots needed.

Yes. This is similar to what an IBM engineer told me shortly after I posted the original message. I installed the serverraid application onto windows to get ready for the introduction of two new drives. Basically I'm taking the server offline during the weekend. Plug in the two new drives, use serverraid application to expand the logical volume, wait three to six hours for the array to rebuild, reboot and put the server back online. Of course I will have two seperate full backups of all the critical data just in case something goes wrong during the rebuild. I was lucky enough to speak with a very knowledgeable IBM engineer who has done this very proceedure several times.

i appreciate the advice.